The muscle-up has to be learned for 2 simple reasons. It’s a badass move and you’ll be pretty strong when you’re able to master this one. It’s a natty delusion that you need to bench a ton of weight. Most guys can bench heavy but can’t perform a single pistol squat or muscle-up. Learn to master the muscle up and become happy like a little kid.
I will never remember when I saw my first muscle-up. I was training together with a buddy from college who was pretty strong but was more a calisthenics guy. Suddenly he challenged me to do a human flag and a muscle-up just for fun. So I tried both and I managed to a face plant on both exercises. My chin hit the bar pretty good when did my first attempt. I was lucky that I didn’t have a big ego so I just moved on.
I didn’t try it for a while after that but after my depression, I shifted my whole approach and got more into bodyweight stuff. I switched things up and suddenly I could do a human flag but still no muscle-up. 3 months later I was able to do my first muscle-up.
Are you ready to conquer the bar in your gym or local park?
Master the muscle-up: the endless discussion about thumb placement
The answer to this one is pretty easy: your thumb should always be over the bar like you’re holding a barbell (so a closed fist instead of fingers and thumb at the same side). I never got why people did this, you’ll get a lot more grip strength when you’re using the thumb as well. This will help you when you’re doing things like heavy deadlifts, there are no straps required when you’ve got a strong grip.
Master the muscle-up: don’t neglect your pull-ups
You’ll never be able to do a muscle-up if you can’t do some pull-ups. You need to be able to do 10 perfect pull-ups before you can even try to take it up a notch.
So what do I mean by perfect pull-ups? You have to go down COMPLETELY and pull yourself up above the bar. Repeat this 10 times. It’s a struggle but the struggle is far from over because now it’s time to add weight. We’re going to do weighted pull-ups and I preferred to use the reverse pyramid training principle. This means 5 reps with the heaviest weight, rest for 90 seconds, decrease the weight and do 6 reps. Then you rest for another 90 seconds, decrease the weight and aim for 8 reps.
This made me extremely strong and once you’re able to master it with 10 – 20 kg’s (20 lbs to 40 lbs plates) we’re going over to the most fun part. The part where you’ll hit the ground multiple times.
What if I can’t do a single pull up?
Star by doing Australian pull-ups and make sure that you’re able to do them 4 times 20. After that, you should go to chin-ups instead of pull-ups. Chin-ups are a lot easier than pull-ups. Work your way to 4 times 10 perfect chin-ups and after that, you should try to do the pull-up.
The hit the ground part
The muscle-up requires a lot of explosive strength so we’re going to add explosive pull-ups to start with. Just pull yourself up as fast as you can and go down slowly. This will be pretty easy since you did all those weighted pull-ups.
Once you’re comfortable with those it’s time to add a clap above the bar. Just do an explosive pull up, release the bar clap and make sure that you catch the bar again. Normally this shouldn’t be a problem as well.
The last and most challenging part is the clap behind the back pull up. This one will test your explosiveness bigtime. You need to do an explosive pull up, release the bar, clap behind your back and catch the bar again. It sounds a lot easier than you might think. I hit the ground multiple times before I was able to master this one.
Master the muscle-up: everybody neglects these
You can do a thousand parallel dips but you need to get comfortable with the straight bar dip. I can assure you that this is one weird way of doing a dip. You won’t see a lot of guys doing these and they’re great for overall chest development, balance and mastering the almighty muscle-up.
This move requires a lot of balance and that’s what most people don’t realize. You won’t be able to do it perfectly at first but that’s okay. I’ll guide you through the process.
You should use your legs to counterbalance when you perform this exercise. I mentioned this first to make sure that you won’t forget this part. So go find yourself a bar and jump up to make sure that you’re in a straight dip position. Now get down (don’t forget to use your legs) to a point in which you won’t dropdown. This will probably to the point where the bar hits your upper abs. This is great but you should be able to get lower.
Just keep on practicing till your lower chest hits the bar. Now we go down to the final part in which you’ll learn the muscle-up. There’s also a bonus part for the one who wants to take the badass move to the next level.
Master the muscle up movement
We’re going to start with an exercise that’s split into two parts. Most people struggle to get over the bar so that’s why we’re going to learn the movement by jumping up. Look for a bar that you can hold while you’re still standing on the floor. Jump up and go the straight bar dip. This was the first part of the exercise.
For the second part, we’re going to focus on the negative part of the muscle-up. So your hanging over the bar with straight arms and you slowly come down till your chest hits the bar. Now keep on lowering yourself as slowly as possible while you extend your legs forward.
You’ll drop down pretty quickly at first but you’ll get better and better.
Don’t whine, just get over it
Mastering the muscle-up takes a lot of time but it’s worth to train towards it. This is also your first step in leaving your comfort zone. You’re going to get uncomfortable to master this one.
Make sure you warm up properly when you perform this move and make sure you’re still energetic. It’s almost impossible to do it when you’re tired.
A quick tip: the secret lies in the movement. You need to pull yourself a bit backward instead of straight up. It’s really hard to explain but it’s like you’re moving in a half-circular movement. That’s why most people use their legs to make sure that they swing a bit backward. This gives you the momentum that you need to get over the bar.
The muscle-up times 2
Weighted muscle-ups are no joke. I could go pretty heavy on these but I was exhausted after 3 sets. But they weren’t as challenging as the ring muscle-up. Man, I struggled to do that one. It requires a lot more strength and balance from the core.
I prefer these over-weighted muscle ups but that a personal choice. There are even guys who’re doing a weighted ring muscle-up.
The sky is the limit.
So are you ready to aim for the sky and show what you’re made off?!
What if I want to become better at calisthenics in general?
Well, Al Kavadlo and his brother have a sort of calisthenics bible. It shows you all the available exercises per muscle group and it contains some training routines. A must buy if you’re into calisthenics. I bought it myself this summer and I learned to master some new moves plus I can make my workouts a lot more fun now.
The book is called “Street Workout: A Worldwide Anthology of Urban Calisthenics–How to Sculpt a God-Like Physique Using Nothing But Your Environment” and costs 9.99 dollars (pretty cheap for all the info that they’re sharing). You can buy it here.
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Till next time
Alex
